Employment duration of younger baby boomers

August 26, 2004

Although job duration tends to be longer the older a worker is when starting a job, younger baby boomers—those born between 1957 and 1964—continued to have large numbers of short-duration jobs even as they approached middle age.

Of the jobs that younger baby boomers began when they were ages 18 to 22, 71 percent ended in less than a year, and 94 percent ended in fewer than 5 years.

Among jobs started by these workers when they were ages 28 to 32, 50 percent ended in less than a year, and 82 percent ended in fewer than 5 years.

Among jobs started by workers when they were ages 33 to 38, 39 percent ended in less than a year, and 70 percent ended in fewer than 5 years.

National Longitudinal Surveys, a set of surveys that gather information at multiple points in time on the labor market activities and other significant life events of several groups of men and women. To learn more about the employment experience of younger baby boomers, see "Number of Jobs Held, Labor Market Activity, and Earnings Growth Among Younger Baby Boomers: Recent Results From a Longitudinal Survey" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 04-1678. Note that, in this article, a job is defined as an uninterrupted period of work with a particular employer.